Little Sprouts

The broccoli has sprouted in record time!  Do you think they could sense their sibling being cooked for dinner last night and wanted to visit with them one last time?  Anyone hungry??

Laugh if You Must (Part 2)

So it might not be the smartest idea to tip off our readers to our inexperience (or insanity as some might view it) this early in our blogging career.  I choose to believe that it makes us appear more human and perhaps you can see a little of yourself in our adventures.  Then again, perhaps you are just here for the laughs.


Now that we have established that we have bitten off more than we can probably chew (perhaps literally AND figuratively) in our garden planning, it is time to share the rest of the story.  


This weekend we started some of our seeds - in those tiny peat pots and trays.  The kids of course insisted on helping and since I want this to be a fun learning experience, I let them join in.   Step one was to pour warm water into the tray for the planting medium to absorb.  Of course after I meticulously measured the correct amount of water into a bowl for child #1, I told them to gently pour it over the pots.  She splashed it all over the counter instead.  Repeating this process with a few extra warnings, I handed over the water for the second tray to child #2.  So concerned to show his older sister how it was done that he moved at turtle speed....which of course meant that the soil was knocked loose from the top of the pots because it was moistened before even half of the water was in.  Sigh.  


With all four trays ready to plant I suddenly had a garden panic attack.  How was I going to get all these seeds in so few pots!  You can not leave a seed unused after all.  I mean, we paid nearly a dollar for those 5,000 celery seeds!  I had already been concerned over the need to buy another set of florescent bulbs and a light fixture because I had doubled the planned number of flats.  Taking another deep breath I decided it might actually be okay if we did not plant more than 78 celery stalks since it isn't one of our most beloved vegetables.  And the remaining other seeds we'll try to throw into the garden and see if they will germinate as successfully there as under a grow light in the comfy warmth of our dining room.

PVC Planting Shelves

Which brings me to the next subject - where were we going to put the seed trays?  My first idea was to rig our downstairs bathtub (we do not use the bathtub in there).  My dad suggested an A-frame contraption that sounded difficult to move around.  Then my husband did a little internet searching and came upon a PVC creation that seemed to be a great solution as we could place it in the dining room where I am more likely to keep an eye on the water needs.  A quick trip to the hardware store and a little time and we had a pretty slick system.  We made ours to hold four large trays and two 48" light fixtures per "shelf".  There are three shelves - although we're only using one this year.  The entire system can be taken down and stored easily and although it looks a little wonky because of the uneven floors in our 100 year old farmhouse, it's going to work great.  We did decide it could use a little reinforcing in the center so we'll do that in a week or so.


Note to self (and others who may not already know this):  When putting in florescent bulbs, be sure your power is off.  I turned ours on and one of the two bulbs was not coming on so I tried to adjust it...at which point it slipped out and zapped the bulb.  Now we are already down one bulb and we have not even had the seeds planted for an hour!


My sister is passing on to us her greenhouse so I'm excited about using that too.  We will pick that up soon but here's a picture of the one we are getting.

The greenhouse we will be getting soon.

Okay, that about wraps up our garden plans for the remainder of the winter.  Another few weeks and we'll be able to start thinking about tilling up the great expanse of land all these seeds will need.  We have a great spot for our main garden but we have to select another site for the corn and pumpkins that isn't overshadowed by our enormous barn or too far from a water source.  Plus I want one elevated bed that I can plant the asparagus in so it doesn't get tilled up each spring.


Be sure to stop back in the early Spring to see the garden planting in progress!

Laugh if You Must (Part 1)

In my post-college years, I can recall taking several training course where we explored the different personality types.  Me, with my list making tendencies, clearly leans toward the "Type A" category.  So it should come as no surprise to you that when we began discussing our garden plantings that our list of potential vegetables got a little long.

Then the perfectionist part of me jumps out here and there.  I can almost look out my back window and see the massive garden plantings all in straight, healthy, bug-free, and weed-free rows.  The biggest obstacle to completely believing the vision is that the stronger part of me is a realist.  I know that I may have a piece of paper and badge that says I am a Master Gardener but the truth is I have never planted a garden of any real significance.  My knowledge of the cause of blossom end rot on my tomatoes does not help me from finding it on my tomatoes every time I have tried to grow them (only in containers on the porch because our previous home was in the deep shade).  Let's face it, I'm more of a flower girl.

Yet my husband has a passion for healthy eating and his city upbringing has given him a quaint view of the rural farming life...even if we are only experiencing it in a scaled down version.  His enthusiasm has fueled my own and soon the list required a second piece of paper.


Here was the original plan for the garden ~

     asparagus
     beans
     broccoli
     brussel sprouts
     cantaloupe
     carrots
     cauliflower
     corn - sweet and ornamental
     cucumber
     gourds - small, mixed and bottle
     lettuce - iceberg and romaine
     peas - eaten in pod
     peppers - green, red, and chili
     potatoes
     pumpkins - extra large and medium sizes
     raspberries
     strawberries
     sunflowers - mammoth
     tomatoes - regular, Roma, and cherry/grape
     watermelon

I ran to three different garden stores before I found all I was looking to add to the garden.  Of course when presented with all of the choices at the store I might have added a few extra that we had either forgotten about or just looked fun to try.  I also picked up ~

     cabbage - early and late varieties
     spinach
     peppers - yellow and purple
     sunflowers - an interesting red/white variety that will look great against the barn
     celery
     peas - kind you shell
     Swiss chard - my sister swears by this as an alternative to spinach

Now, for those of you that have planted and tended a large garden before you knew what you were doing, I will pause while you gain control over your laughter...

Let the Fun Begin!

Another milestone today - the creation of our farm's blog.  Getting here seems easy enough until you realize how hard it was to name this farm when Mom, Dad, and both kids have to agree.  We probably could have put the names we were considering up for debate by our family and friends but to be honest I really could not take any more ridicule of my own suggestions.  My ego just would not allow it.  Perhaps someday when my self esteem seems able to handle it I'll share the other contenders.  Let's just cut to the chase and say that the farm has officially been named.  I am proud that we reached a family consensus on something that for years will represent the heart we have put into this homestead.

Heartland Hill Farm

Of course the farm naming and the blog are only small steps on this journey.  We really need to introduce you to the first livestock to call Heartland Hill Farm home ~ the chickens.  

Our original 50 meat chickens plus the free "rare and exotic".

We started this past summer with 50 chickens we raised for meat.  I thought the kids would enjoy them but what I discovered is I could lose lots of my own time just watching these fat little feathered creatures as they ate themselves silly and grew seemingly by the hour.  Eleven weeks later and we had some seriously delicious and wholesome meat in the freezer.  However, left behind was one lonely "rare and exotic" chicken we had named Micco.  

Micco, aged 11 weeks, shortly after her brothers went off to the freezer.

Micco was shipped as a freebie with our meat chickens and the only thing "rare and exotic" about her is that she's a hen instead of a rooster (which the company usually sends out).  Raised as the only sister to her 50 brothers who never wanted to leave the comfort of their food bowls in the coop, she had no idea how to act like a proper chicken.  Giving her away to another family who was looking for more hens was not a possibility with children that considered her a pet.  The only option was to find her companions.  One failed attempt with Craig's List and countless other outreaches to other chicken owners to try to buy a few hens proved fruitless.  Then just as we began considering ordering more mail order hens (minimum order 25), my sister agreed to give us her seven chickens so they didn't have to take care of them over the winter. 


In the dark of night we introduced one large white rooster, Big John, a quirky rooster with questionable intelligence, Black Beard, and a small white bantam rooster who is completely happy with his larger playmates and occasionally shows some gender identity issues as he will sit on the eggs.  The girls included one large white girl (laying white eggs) that has moments of broodiness, another Easter Egger like Micco (sometimes hard to tell them apart), and two brown girls - one of which is laying a tan colored egg and the other which lays green.  I could make some really uneducated guesses at their genealogy but I suspect that someone wiser would correct me and I think we have already established I have an ego to protect.


Concerns were high that our baby, Micco, would be the odd girl out but our fears were for nothing.  She is happier than ever and is often the first one to run outside when I open the coop when she wouldn't dare venture outside before her friends arrived.  The others have adapted well also and the egg production has been at least one egg per hen per day all winter long once I realized they needed a few extra hours of light more than we were already giving them.

Our newest babies in the nursery.

A couple weeks ago, thanks to friends of ours, we purchased fifteen new chicks.  Once again our garage has turned into a nursery.  I don't know who thought hatching eggs in the dead of winter was a good idea but so far so good thanks to a couple of heat lamps.  We're not sure yet how many of the chicks are hens vs. roosters but we will have to find homes for the roosters because our three adult roosters are probably all that our coop can handle without upsetting the balance.

So that's the introduction to our farm thus far.  Hopefully in the very near future we can introduce you to the real stars of the farm ~ our alpacas!  After all, they are the reason we started this journey to begin with.  Until then, we will keep you updated on the farm progress and the garden plans.  And if you're really hungry for more, check out the website my daughter is creating for our eggs:  

Not That Boring White Egg